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The Joseph P Overton Fellowship for Education Policy

Check the list of Selected Fellows

The Joseph P. Overton Fellowship is a year-long program that provides a dynamic platform to track developments within the education sector in India. Working independently at the state-level, Overton Fellows will focus their research and analyses on the implementation of the Right to Education Act in each of the 29 states across the country. The Fellowship program is aimed at motivated young individuals with an interest in policy and advocacy. The Fellows will be selected on the basis of their academic achievements, leadership skills and expressed motivation to work in the policy sphere.

The Overton Fellowship will be administered by Centre for Civil Society’s School Choice Campaign in an attempt to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2010. With state governments racing to finalise their rules, discourses around access and quality in education remain highly dynamic and the need to highlight best practices and throw light on implementation of Right to Education (RTE) at the state level is imperative. Centre for Civil Society calls for Fellows from across India to spearhead this initiative that would track state-wise developments with regards to RTE.

The Fellows will play a key role in expanding CCS’s network in the state they are allocated and assist the School Choice Campaign to fulfil its goals of advocacy relating to RTE. The activities of an Overton Fellow will include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Gather state-specific news stories and upload them to the RTE portal once a week as well as identify the top story of every week
• Manage a personal column to which they will update a 500 word commentary every month
• Conduct an interview with an opinion maker in the field of education every month
• Identify emerging trends in the RTE discourse in their state
• Maintain a photographic journal of budget private schools and government schools in their state
• Interview parents of (primary school) students with a focus on school choice

Qualifications

• Be currently enrolled in an MA/MSc Program or have recently completed an MA/MSc in Social Science, Economics, Politics, Humanities or other related fields. Undergraduates with relevant work experience may apply.
• Demonstrated interest in public policy
• Willingness to work on education and RTE
• Demonstrated experience in network building
• Strong communication skills
• Self starter
• Knowledge of regional language is a must
• Leadership position on campus is preferred, but not mandatory

Benefits

• Fellows will receive rigorous monthly online training by CCS staff on researching, writing, editing and presentation reports
• Fellows will participate in webinars mentored by experts
• Fellows will receive a monthly stipend of Rs 1000 and a letter of recommendation with a grade for their performance at the end of the year 

ABOUT JOSEPH P OVERTON:
The late Joseph Overton was senior vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Michigan USA at the time of his passing in 2003. Overton was an ardent advocate of School Choice and was a close friend of CCS.  Through this work, Joe evolved his model of public policy change which has been now posthumously named the "Overton Window". For more information on Overton, click here.